Game Modes
TimeShift Explorer offers four unique game modes, each with its own mechanics and challenges:
Time Slider
Compare historical and modern views using an interactive slider. The slider reveals the current Street View progressively—but remember, more reveal means fewer bonus points! Content includes both old Street View comparisons (2007-2015) and historical Flickr photos (1800s-modern). Complete 5 rounds per game.
Time Penalty: on a timed round the first 30 seconds are free, then up to -2,000 points by the time the clock runs out. Unlimited rounds carry no deduction and are not ranked on the leaderboard.
Scratch Quest
Scratch away the historical image to reveal the modern Street View underneath. Choose your brush size (Small, Medium, Large) and reveal strategically—every scratch reduces your potential score! Same content as Time Slider, but with a different reveal mechanic.
Time Penalty: on a timed round the first 30 seconds are free, then up to -2,000 points by the time the clock runs out. Unlimited rounds carry no deduction and are not ranked on the leaderboard.
Spot On
The ultimate precision challenge! Study a historical photo and pinpoint the exact location on the map. No slider, no scratching—just you and the photo. Distance-only scoring with a maximum of 10,000 points per round. Complete 5 rounds per game for up to 50,000 total points.
Time Penalty: on a timed round the first 30 seconds are free, then up to -2,000 points by the time the clock runs out. The clock runs seamlessly across the image and the map. Unlimited rounds carry no deduction and are not ranked on the leaderboard.
Mapster
Master satellite imagery! Study an aerial photo from above (no labels, no zoom), then pinpoint the exact location on a world map. Up to 10,000 points per round. Complete 5 rounds per game for up to 50,000 total points.
Time Penalty: on a timed round the first 30 seconds are free, then up to -2,000 points by the time the clock runs out. The clock runs seamlessly across the image and the map. Unlimited rounds carry no deduction and are not ranked on the leaderboard.
Satellite Challenge: Identify locations from static satellite photos across ten themes — cities, capitals, islands, lakes, volcanoes, arenas, airports, landmarks, race tracks, and ports & harbors. Gold and Platinum members can filter a game to just the themes they want. Use Golden Tickets to unlock hints with population, continent, and fun facts to help you narrow down the location!
Time Slider / Scratch Quest Mechanics
Historical Content
Each round shows either an old Street View (e.g., from 2007-2015) or a historical photo from Flickr Commons (ranging from 1800s to modern times). Study the image carefully - architecture, landscape, signs, and other details can help you identify the location.
Reveal Mechanics
Time Slider: Use the slider to progressively reveal the current Street View. The slider only moves forward—you cannot decrease the reveal percentage!
Scratch Quest: Click and drag to scratch away the historical image. Choose brush size to control how much you reveal with each stroke.
Golden Ticket System (max 5 per round)
Use your Golden Tickets to unlock hints! Each image has up to 5 AI-generated hints. Time Slider: max 5 hints per round. Scratch Quest: max 5 hints per round. Mapster: up to 5 hints per round with population, continent, and fun facts.
Golden Tickets are FREE to use and don't affect your score! New players get 10 Golden Tickets to start. FREE members receive 3 tickets monthly, GOLD members receive 10 tickets monthly, and PLATINUM members receive 20 tickets monthly on your membership anniversary day.
World Map Guess
Click anywhere on the interactive world map to place your guess. The closer you are to the actual location, the more points you earn!
Spot On Mechanics
Pure Location Skills
Spot On is the purest test of your geography detective skills. You must rely solely on visual clues—architecture, language on signs, vegetation, and geography—to pinpoint the location. Scoring is distance-only with no year guessing—max 10,000 points per round, 50,000 total.
Real-Time Multiplayer
All game modes support Multiplayer Battles. Create a game room and invite friends to play the same 5 locations simultaneously.
- Available in Time Slider, Scratch Quest, Spot On, and Mapster
- Up to 20 players per game
- Everyone sees the same content at the same time
- Scores update live after each round
- The player with the highest total score wins!
Mapster Mechanics
Satellite Imagery Challenge
Mapster presents you with a static satellite photo from above. Unlike street-level photos, you see the landscape from a bird's eye view—terrain, buildings, coastlines, and patterns. No labels, no zoom—but you can use Golden Tickets to unlock hints with population, continent, and fun facts about the city.
Pinpoint Location
Study the aerial view carefully—identify geographical features, urban patterns, water bodies, and vegetation. Then click on the world map to place your guess. Distance-based scoring rewards precision—the closer you are to the actual location, the more points you earn (up to 10,000 pts per round). Inside the city's accept radius you get full points; outside, points decrease linearly over 2,000 km.
Pure Skill - No Penalties
Unlike Time Slider or Scratch Quest, Mapster has no reveal mechanics and no year guessing. Your score is based purely on distance accuracy alone. Complete 5 rounds per game for up to 50,000 total points.
Multiplayer Support
Mapster supports multiplayer battles! Create a private room and invite friends to compete on the same satellite images. See who has the best geography instincts and visual recognition skills.
- Up to 20 players per game
- 5 rounds of satellite imagery
- Everyone sees the same aerial photos
- Best cumulative score wins!
Daily Trip & Weekly Competition
Daily Challenge
Time Slider and Scratch Quest both offer a Daily Trip mode where all players worldwide get the same 5 locations each day. Play once per day (resets at midnight UTC) and compete for the top scores on the weekly leaderboard!
Weekly Leaderboard Prizes
Each week (Monday-Sunday), your Daily Trip scores accumulate on the leaderboard. At the end of the week, the top 3 players in each mode receive Golden Ticket prizes:
- 1st place: 10 Golden Tickets
- 2nd place: 5 Golden Tickets
- 3rd place: 2 Golden Tickets
Prizes are awarded automatically on Monday at 00:05 UTC (right after the week ends).
A mode pays out only if at least 3 players finished a full Daily Trip session in it that week — a leaderboard of one or two is not a competition. Each mode counts on its own, so to compete in all four you need to finish a session in all four.
Weekly Streak Bonus (NEW!)
Play Daily Trip to build your weekly streak and earn bonus Golden Tickets based on how many days you play during the week (Monday-Sunday). Days don't need to be consecutive — just play as many days as possible!
Weekly Streak Rewards:
- • Play 5 days = 2 Golden Tickets
- • Play 6 days = 3 Golden Tickets
- • Play 7 days = 5 Golden Tickets
Playing 1-4 days earns 0 streak tickets (but still counts toward the leaderboard!)
Streak rewards are paid out on Monday at 00:05 UTC along with leaderboard placement prizes. If you play both Time Slider and Scratch Quest:
- You can earn streak bonuses in both modes separately
- Maximum weekly streak: 10 tickets (5 per mode × 2 modes)
- Plus potential placement prizes: up to 20 tickets (10 per mode if you win both)
Playing every day maximizes your streak bonus AND gives you more chances to climb the leaderboard for placement prizes!
Scoring System
Scoring varies by game mode. Time Slider and Scratch Quest use distance + year bonus + slider/scratch deduction. Spot On uses distance only (max 10,000/round). Mapster uses graduated distance scoring (max 10,000/round). On top of that, every mode played on a clock has a time penalty of at most -1,000 points per round.
Distance Score (max 5,000 points)
Content-type specific scoring (Time Slider / Scratch Quest): Both Flickr historical images (1880-2000) and modern Street View images (2007-2025) use the same distance scoring for fair competition.
Exponential Scoring Curve:
- • Within 25m: 5,000 points (perfect score!)
- • 25m - 1,000km: Exponential decay rewards precision
- • First kilometer: High reward (4,965 pts at 1km)
- • Regional accuracy: Strong bonus (3,520 pts at 50km)
- • Over 1,000km: ~0 points
Distance Examples:
Perfect (≤25m):5,000 points
100m away:4,996 points
500m away:4,982 points
1 km away:4,965 points
5 km away:4,829 points
10 km away:4,662 points
50 km away:3,520 points
100 km away:2,483 points
500 km away:151 points
1,000 km away:0 points
> 1,000 km:0 points
Slider Deduction (max -2,000 points)
The more you reveal, the more points are deducted from your Distance Score:
Deduction = 2,000 × (sliderPosition / 100)
0% revealed:-0 points
25% revealed:-500 points
50% revealed:-1,000 points
75% revealed:-1,500 points
100% revealed:-2,000 points
Golden Tickets (Free to Use!)
Use your Golden Tickets to unlock clues and narrow down the location!
No point penalty
Golden Tickets don't affect your score - use them strategically to improve your guesses! New players get 10 free Golden Tickets.
Year Bonus (max 5,000 points)
Guess the year! After guessing the location, you must also guess what year the historical photo was taken. The closer you are to the correct year, the more bonus points you earn!
Street View Locations (2007-2025)
Modern Street View imagery spans 18 years (2007-2025), so scoring is strict:
- • Exact year: 5,000 points
- • ~555 points deducted per year off
- • ±9 years or more: 0 points
Exact year:5,000 pts
±1 year:4,445 pts
±2 years:3,890 pts
±5 years:2,225 pts
±9+ years:0 pts
Flickr Historical Photos (1880-2000)
Historical photos span 120 years (1880-2000), so scoring is more forgiving:
- • Exact year: 5,000 points
- • ~83 points deducted per year off
- • ±60 years or more: 0 points
Exact year:5,000 pts
±10 years:4,170 pts
±20 years:3,340 pts
±30 years:2,510 pts
±40 years:1,680 pts
±60+ years:0 pts
Example Score Calculation
Scenario: You guess 50 km away, reveal 40% of the slider, use 2 Golden Tickets, and guess the year 5 years off (Street View)
Distance Score (50 km):3,520 points
Year Bonus (±5 years):+2,225 points
Slider deduction (40%):-800 points
Golden Tickets used (2):FREE
Time penalty (1 min round, 0:30 left):-333 points
Total Score:4,612 points
Time Penalty (max -1,000 points)
Every game mode played on a clock adds a time deduction to each round. It is a flat cap, not a share of your score — the most you can ever lose to the clock is 1,000 points per round. Rounds set to Unlimited have no time penalty at all.
- • First 30 seconds of the round: deduction-free — answer here and you keep the whole round score, so a perfect 10,000 is still within reach.
- • After that: the deduction grows steadily with the time you spend.
- • When the clock hits 0: the full -1,000 — and never more.
- • The deduction can never take a round below 0 points.
- • Short rounds: the free window never swallows more than the opening 50% of the round, so every timed setting has a real ramp — picking a short clock is never a way to dodge the deduction.
The free window is a fixed 30 seconds (capped at the opening 50% on short rounds), so the longer the round the gentler the ramp:
| Time limit | Deduction starts at | At 0 sec |
|---|---|---|
| 10 sec | 0:05 left | -2,000 |
| 30 sec | 0:15 left | -2,000 |
| 1 min | 0:30 left | -2,000 |
| 3 min | 2:30 left | -2,000 |
| 5 min | 4:30 left | -2,000 |
Maximum Possible Score per Round:
10,000 points
Time Slider / Scratch Quest: 5,000 distance + 5,000 year bonus (minus slider/scratch deduction). Spot On: max 10,000 (distance only). Mapster: max 10,000 (graduated distance scoring). Every mode tops out at the same 10,000 per round. On a timed round, subtract the time penalty (max -1,000) — answer inside the free opening window and the full score still stands.
Player Types
Guest Player
- Play 1 Time Slider game (5 rounds) per day
- Cannot play Scratch Quest, Spot On, or Mapster
- Cannot use Golden Tickets
- See results after each round
- Daily limit resets at midnight
- Scores not saved to leaderboard
- No profile statistics
- Session lost on logout
Daily Limit: Guest players can play one Time Slider game (5 rounds) per day. Sign up for more game modes and features!
Registered Player (Free Tier)
- 3 Time Slider + Scratch Quest games/day (shared pool)
- 3 Spot On games/day
- 3 Mapster games/day
- Scores saved to leaderboard
- Profile with statistics
- Hint balance system (start with 10 free Golden Tickets!)
- 3 Golden Tickets/month
- Track total score & games played
- Session persists across logins
- Join multiplayer games via invite
- Cannot create multiplayer sessions
Tips & Strategy
Need More Golden Tickets?
Running low on golden tickets? You can purchase additional golden tickets to help you discover more locations! We offer packages from 5 tickets ($0.99) to 1,000 tickets ($44.99), with better value on larger packages.
Flexible Packages
Choose from 8 packages ranging from 5 Golden Tickets ($0.99) to 1,000 Golden Tickets ($44.99), with prices as low as $0.045 per ticket.
No Expiration
Purchased Golden Tickets never expire. Buy once and use them whenever you need them across all your games.
About the Images
Photographs come from public historical archives. History is not always comfortable viewing. Images from wartime, occupation and dictatorship appear in the game — including Second World War photographs showing Nazi Germany, its symbols and the places it occupied. They are here for one reason: to work out where the photograph was taken and see what stands there now. Their inclusion documents history, it does not endorse or glorify any of it.
Locations are approximate. Historical photographs rarely carry GPS data and archive captions can be vague or wrong, so a location's coordinate is our best estimate rather than a surveyed fact. Street View panoramas sit where the camera vehicle drove, which may be some way from the photographer's vantage point, and satellite tiles were captured at a different time again. Read distances and scores as close, not exact.
Full detail in our disclaimer. If an image seems gratuitous, misattributed, or unlawful where you live, use the Report this image link on the round-result screen, or tell us directly — we review every report.
Membership Tiers & Daily Limits
Choose the membership level that fits your playing style:
Guest
Free - No Account
- ✓1 Time Slider game/day
- ✗Cannot play Scratch Quest, Spot On, or Mapster
- ✗Cannot use Golden Tickets
- ✗No leaderboard tracking
Free Member
Free - Registration Required
- ✓3 plays/day shared (Time Slider + Scratch Quest)
- ✓3 Spot On games/day
- ✓3 Mapster games/day
- ✓3 Golden Tickets/month
- ✓Leaderboard tracking
- ✓Join multiplayer games via invite
- ✗Cannot create multiplayer sessions
Gold Member
$4.99/month
- ✓10 plays/day shared (Time Slider + Scratch Quest)
- ✓10 Spot On games/day
- ✓10 Mapster games/day
- ✓10 Golden Tickets upon upgrade + 10/month
- ✓Create multiplayer sessions (10/day)
- ✓Create custom locations (all modes!)
- ✓Exclusive Gold badge
Platinum
$7.99/month
- ✓UNLIMITED all game modes
- ✓Unlimited Multiplayer creation
- ✓20 Golden Tickets upon upgrade + 20/month
- ✓Create custom locations
- ✓Exclusive Platinum badge
Daily limits reset at midnight in your local timezone. Platinum members get unlimited play across all game modes!
Gold Membership Benefits
Unlock platinum features and help shape the future of TimeShift Explorer
Create Content & Multiplayer
Create your own locations for all game modes and create Multiplayer sessions to challenge friends. Design unique rounds and share your favorite finds!
Monthly Golden Tickets
Receive 10 Golden Tickets (Gold) or 20 Golden Tickets (Platinum) upon signup, then every month automatically on your registration day. Use them to unlock clues in any game mode without affecting your score.
Exclusive Gold Badge
Display your Gold member status with a special badge on leaderboards and throughout the game.